Abstract
The conventional bridge system consisting of unreinforced backfill and a pair of RC abutment needs long-term maintenance of girder-supports. The settlement of backfill forming a bump and a low seismic stability are other problems. A bridge comprising of a pair of geosynthetic-reinforced soil (GRS) walls directly supporting a girder with full-height rigid (FHR) facing is structurally simpler. It has a limited allowable girder length, needs long-term maintenance and has a low-seismic stability of the girder-support system. The integral bridge system is structurally simpler, but the thermal cyclic displacement at the facing increases residual earth pressure and backfill settlement. A new bridge system combining a pair of GRS walls with FHR facing and an integral bridge, taking their advantages while alleviating their problems, is proposed. A series of shaking table tests on scaled models of these four bridge systems were performed to validate a high-seismic stability of the proposed system.
